Heavy Rain Review

Sony first released Heavy Rain on February 23rd, 2010 exclusively on PlayStation 3. From Quantic Dream comes the spiritual successor to 2005′s Fahrenheit / Indigo Prophecy. This is a 3rd person action-adventure game in which you play all four lead roles in a gripping psychological thriller, where every action you take has consequences. Your decisions affect how the plot unfolds. Who will live? Who will die? How this story ends is entirely up to you.
System: PS3
Genre: Action-Adventure, Interactive Drama, Psychological Thriller
Release dates: February 23rd 2010 (USA), February 25th 2010 (Australia), February 26th 2010 (Europe)
Players: Singleplayer
Developer: Quantic Dream
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Origin: United Kingdom
Rating: ESRB: M, PEGI: 18, BBFC: 15

“The killer is no ordinary murderer. He is intelligent, organized and methodical. You won’t find him by patrolling the streets.” -Norman Jayden

The Origami Killer has left a city terrorized. The police are running out of leads, and now a new victim has disappeared…
The tension-soaked hunt for his next victim Shaun Mars will lead four unconnected people into a dangerous battle of wits, where each will be confronted by the same question: How far are you prepared to go for love?
A review of PS3′s Heavy Rain by a lowly games art student. It was my first video review so take it easy on me folks XD

Agree/disagree with my thoughts? Please feel free to tell me what you think of the game, I love to hear everyone’s opinions!
Music from the game used in the review:
Here is a list of musical tracks from the Heavy Rain Original Videogame Score that I have used for the video in the order they appear.
1. Lauren Winter’s Theme
2. Painful Memories
3. Last Breath
4. The Last Redemption

Main features of the game:

Heavy plotting: A dark, adult-themed thriller with believable characters and a captivating plot full of love, violence and sacrifice.

Virtual luvvies: Breakthrough facial animation features the most realistic virtual actors ever seen, each capable of mimicking real and varied emotions.

Consequences: If a character dies they stay dead – no extra lives or continues, just an organic plotline with multiple different endings.

Quick Time: Intense action sequences that anyone can play, with simple controls and fast-paced against-the-clock challenges.

Conscious action: Unique control system lets you see what your character is thinking as they explore the world – and then act on it with a press of a button.

As a conclusion let’s see how much fun the game is on a scale from 1 to 10:
Gameplay
Heavy Rain is not just Quick-Time events, not that that would be a bad thing. You have chances where you can actually control the character, you know, just walk them around the environments. While it takes a while to get used to — like when turning left, sometimes the camera angle changes to leave you walking in the opposite direction, which is a bit irritating — plus the fact that there are four different characters to control, meaning their build, walk and weight feel completely different from each other. Which could be considered a great design aspect, because they’ve taken the time to look into how they all move.
The actual gameplay itself revolves around different kinds of movements via Sixaxis control, analog “mushroom pad” stick, and Quick-Time events to press X repeatedly or press & hold a certain sequence of buttons. Sometimes you have to do an action really slow, otherwise you completely bugger up everything. There’s so much, and personally I think that benefits the story, because this way you’re not limited to a set amount of actions (punch, kick, walk) and your character is able to do anything. You can completely interact with the universe and everything going on around you. You can pick up a glass, lean against the wall, sit on the bed, do whatever you want.
Story
The story is really brilliant. I think it’s the best story I’ve ever seen being told in a videogame. The depth of it is great. It’s a detective thriller, but whatever you want to call it, it had me guessing throughout the entire game “Who the hell is the Origami Killer?” They will give you these teasing little clues and stuff, it was brilliantly executed.
The characters themselves are incredibly deep. They all have flaws, which is great because flaws make us human, we’re not perfect. It created more of a believability because of it. I found myself getting into the story so much that when I got the so-close ending I was in tears, I actually bawled. And I think what really added to the suspension of disbelief was the fact that your characters have mortality, they could die. There was no “Game Over” screen, you don’t respawn within 10 seconds after you die and then story continues, so when you get to a life-or-death situation it makes it so much more pressured.
It’s all about fully immersing yourself in the game, and I don’t think any game has quite done that like this. I’m a fan of Uncharted because of the chemistry between the actors and the brilliant writing, but Heavy Rain is totally different. Because you don’t feel like you’re watching the characters, you don’t feel like there’s a screen separating you, you feel like you ARE the character; you’re not just walking in their shoes, you’re them! So if you like games with story, then Heavy Rain is for you.
Graphics
Visuals are great, they just look fantastic:
The character models themselves, on them you can see the pores, blotchy skin, stubbles, all of it, and it looks great.
The environments are great, but not as good as the character models. Some of the objects you come in contact with like remotes and TV look 2 dimensional by comparison.
Audio
The score was spectacular! Very film noir. It set the mood and atmosphere perfectly. It took an already stressful story line or nerve shredding moment and amped it up. The music lends itself perfectly to the game.
OVERALL FUN-FACTOR — 9.5
Overall, this to me is the best game I’ve played, bar none. I’ve played it another four times after the first time I finished it, just to get all the trophies and see the different endings. So Heavy Rain has a lot of replay value.
Just try it out, be part of the gaming revolution!
If you don’t have a PS3, go around to someone who has one. A great idea I read somewhere was if you’re playing with a big group to have each person play a different character; there are four playable: Ethan Mars, Madison Paige, Scott Shelby & Norman Jayden.
I’m giving the game roughly a 9.5 out of 10. The walking and objects you interact with aren’t that great, the environments could’ve been a little bit better (as good as the character models), but the rest of it is damn-near-perfect! The story, the suspension of disbelief. All of that, you can’t get any better.
To Quantic Dream and David Cage: Thank you for creating such a beautiful game!

Meg 22 May, 2011